St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-12-30
THE RAIL WAY WORLD.
Nearly 10, coo Niles of New Vain Line
Built.
THE SCHEDULE RATIFIED.
The Schedule Tariff Adopted by the
Sub Committee Dec. %,
Ratified.

CHICAGO, Dee. 29.-The Railway Age
tomorrow will say: 1.-The year 1887 has
surpassed all other years in the extent
of railway mileage construction in the
United States. When, six months ago,
the prediction was made in these col
umns that the total new mileage for
the year would hot be less than 10000,
with the likelihood of surprising the
record of 1SS2-the year of greatest rail-
way construction in the history of the
cOuntry-it was not generally believed.
But the figure obtained by careful in
vestigation throughout the year, and
confirmed bv official information, now
proves the prediction to have been more
than warranted. Our returns show
that during 1887 no less than II, 124 miles
of new main line track were added to
the railway system of the United States,
no account being taken of the odd
hundreds of miles of side tracks built,
nor of the thousands of miles of main
line tracks relaid. While the search
has been unusually thorough, and the
totals corrObOrate the record kept from
week to week. it is not Improbable that
some scattering additions may be re-
ceived: so that it Is safe to state that
during 1887 nearly, if not quite,
track were constructed. When in 1882
during period of extraordinary activi-
tv, IL SOS miles of new road were built
it was generally believed that these fg-
ureS would not again be equaled. In
the follow. year the new construction
fell to 6. al miles; in 1884 to 1926, and
and in 1885 to 3,60S miles The year
1856 witnessed considerable revival of
activity, and 5000 miles of new road
were built-a greater mileage than in
anV previous year. with the exception OF
1881 and 1SS2-and now 1887 has wit
messed the building of more miles OF
railway than 1886 and 1885 combined,
and not much less than 1885. 1884 and
1888 together. A recapitulatiOn Of the
construction in the different sections of
the country shows that the greater part
of this prOdigiOuS increase of railways
has taken place in few Western states.
New England and New York contribute
scarcely anything to the grand total:
the great Middle states add very little,
and the additions in the Southern states
not as large as many anticipated, al
though Alabama presents fine record
with over so miles. Georgia adds 230
miles. Florida nearly 200, and Ken
lucky and North Carolina each little
less than that The Northwestern
States. including Michigan, Illinois,
Iowa and Minnesota, have shown very
considerable activity, but the great
RUSH OF RAILWAY BUILDING
has been in the central belt west of the
Missouri river Kansas leads with the
total of 2,070 miles. Nebraska comes
next with / .101 miles, almost equa ed by
Texas with 1,O55 miles. Then in order
come the following: Colorado, SlS: Da-
kOta, 80: Michigan, 700: Montana, Gle;
Missouri. 554: Indian territory, 499, and
SO on. -Four states and two territories.
namely. Kansas, Texas, Nebraska. Col
OradO, Dakota and Montana, together
show an addition of over 6,400 miles, or.
about one-half of the entire years mile
age of the country. Many of the lines
have been built through comparatively
level country. requiring but little grad
ing and bridge building; but on the
other hand many lines have been very
costly: for example, those over the
Rocky mountains in Colorado, the
Southern Pacific extension in Northern
California, the AtchisOn. Kansas City
and Chicago extension; the Northern
Pacific work in the Cascade mountains
and others. Moreover, several of the
companies have purchased costly termi-
nal facilities in large cities, while
nearly, all have made extensive pur-
chases of equipment. 1t is probably
fair to assume that the total cost of
roadway, bridges, station buildings,
terminal facilities and equipment of
these new lines averaged $4,000 per
mile: at which rate it appears that not
far from S325, 100000 have been eX-
pended on the lines completed during
the year. The money which has thus
been expended has temporarily EN-
plOyed a large army of workman. and
has also furnished employment to an
other great army. probably aggregating
$1,000 persons. The railway mileage of
the United States at the commencement
of 1887 was stated to be 49,, 1856 miles.
The extensions for the year here re-
corded incl ease it to 1907 miles.